TUESDAY TIP DAY - How to....

             Retain Fragrance in Your Bath Salts & Bath Bombs           

One of the challenges we all have is how to retain the scent of our fragrances and essential oils in our bath products over time.  Dendritic salt is a key secret ingredient in this battle. Dendritic salt is a very fine grain salt that has been designed to provide greater surface area.  This increased surface area helps lock in and hold fragrance, reduces clumping and requires less pigment if you color your products.  

Incorporating dendritic salt into your products is very easy.  Slowly mix your fragrance or essential oil in with the dendritic salt in a separate bowl.  The recommended usage for dendritic salt is 5% to 10% of your dry ingredients.  Once your fragrance or essential oil is fully mixed with the dendritic salt, mix your dendritic salt in with the rest of your ingredients.

The great news about this secret ingredient is that dendritic salt is very inexpensive.  We sell dendritic salt over at our shop at Artfire for $2.00 a pound or $8.00 for 5 pounds.  Stop on by our shop and check it out. 

We're Back In The Saddle Again!

Do you ever feel like your "to do" list is so long you can't keep up and something has to give?    The past couple of weeks soap making has had to take a back seat to personal responsibilities.  You know, things like husbands, houses, kids, pets, and full time jobs.   Well, I'm glad to say that the break is over and we are getting our grove back.

I made a big batch of body butter and sugar scrub today.   Have you ever made body butter or lotion?   If not, you should try it.   You will be amazed at how easy it is.   Very soon I will put a little tutorial up.

I love Sugar Scrub!  I wish I could climb into a bath tub full of it!    Did you see the last several posts and the Sugar Scrub survey we did with some of our friends?    We posted several recipes for you to try.

For soap making, body butter or sugar scrub supplies you can visit us at www.etsy.com/shop/alittlebarofsoap or www.artfire.com/users/alittlebarofsoap

To give you a sneak peak of some upcoming posts, here are a couple that we will be focusing on.

French Milled or Hand Milled Soap or Rebatching Soap

Creative Ways to Wrap Your Soap

How to Swirl

Body Butter Tutorial

Until next time.....Soap On!

Scrub E Results

This scrub makes a solid scrub bar!  You can pour these scrubs into shaped molds for a different look (silicone baking molds work very well).

Ingredients

15 ounces of Cocoa Butter

7.5 ounces of Shea Butter

.8 ounces of Stearic Acid

1.3 ounces of Polawax

.7 ounces of Beeswax

2.4 ounces of Avocado Oil

2.5 ounces of Sweet Almond Oil

.6 ounces of Cyclomethicone

.6 ounces of Dimethicone

.3 ounces of Fragrance Oil, if desired

32 ounces of sugar

Directions

Phase 1:  Melt the butters, stearic acid, polawax, beeswax and oils in a double boiler until all the ingedients are melted.

Phase 2:  Remove from heat and add the cyclomethicone, dimethicone and fragrance oil.

Phase 3:  Add the sugar and mix well.  Allow the mixture to cool until it becomes thick and almost solid.

Phase 4:  Pour the mixture into a mold and put in the fridge or freezer until set.  Let sit for 24 hours before using.


Here is what are raters said....

The scrubs were rated on Appearance, Texture, Feel of Skin After Use and Overall Rating.  The rating scale was A-F.   A - being Extremely and F - being Not At All. (we had 5 participants in the study)


Appearance    A - 3, B - 1, C - 1, D - 0, E - 0, F - 0

Texture     A - 0, B - 0, C - 2, D - 2, E - 0, F - 1

Feel of the Skin After Use    A - 1, B - 1, C - 2, D - 1, E - 0, F - 0

Overall Rating    A - 0, B - 1, C - 3, D - 1, E - 0, F - 0


Comments:
 "I loved the idea of a scrub soap but this was too crumbly.  It fell apart while using it, into chunks, VERY greasy too."

"Kind of rough on skin, but loved it afterward!  Love it for my feet."

"I felt it was way too rough. I like the idea of having a scrub in bar form, though.
Scrubs C,D and E left my bathtub VERY slippery."

"He was gone before I was done!"

Scrub D Results

This sugar scrub uses brown sugar for a different look and feel!

Ingredients

28 ounces of Brown Sugar

1.4 ounces of Ground Oatmeal

.3 ounces of Liquid Glycerin

3 ounces of Sweet Almond Oil

4.2 ounces of Liquid Soap Base

Fragrance Oil, if desired

Directions

Phase 1:  Use a food processor to grind the oats to “oat flour”

Phase 2:  Weigh the brown sugar and ground oats and combine into a mixing bowl.  Set aside.

Phase 3:  Weigh all the liquid ingredients into another bowl.  

Phase 4:  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients and stir until completely blended.

Phase 5:  Fill your containers with the scrub.

Here is what are raters said....

The scrubs were rated on Appearance, Texture, Feel of Skin After Use and Overall Rating.  The rating scale was A-F.   A - being Extremely and F - being Not At All. (we had 4 participants in the study)


Appearance    A - 0, B - 0, C - 0, D - 4, E - 0, F - 0

Texture     A - 1, B - 0, C - 0, D - 2, E - 0, F - 1

Feel of the Skin After Use    A - 1, B - 0, C - 2, D - 1, E - 0, F - 0

Overall Rating    A - 0, B - 1, C - 2, D - 1, E - 0, F - 0


Comments:
 "The only dislike was color - otherwise LOVED IT!"

"The appearance of the scrub did not appeal to me.  It looked "dirty."  As I placed it on my skin, a lot of it fell off.  It also was greasy to the tub and did not rinse off the tub easily.  My skin felt nice at the end but the experience wasn't "spa like" at all."

"Didn't care for this one at all. Left my skin too oily and didn't glide on well."